In the meantime, Ezra Klein wrote about the information disconnect Republicans have over knowing what spending/tax increase deal is even on the table. And it has less to do with trust. It can be explained with with Scott Walker's reason for not expanding Medicaid; he doesn't trust the government to make good on its promises. It's the fall back cop-out that's starting to get a little old. Here's a short edition of Klein's article:

Obama has said he’s open to chained CPI as part of a budget
deal. It’s right there on
his Web site. It’s literally in bold type. But key GOP legislators have no
idea Obama’s made that concession.

Mike Murphy, one of the top political consultants in the
Republican Party, wrote in
Time that “six magic words can unlock the door to the votes inside the Republican
fortress: Some beneficiaries pay more and chained CPI, budgetary
code for slightly lowering benefit increases over time.” The only problem?
Obama has said all these words.

The point of Klein’s article? Republicans will come up with
something to justify not taking an Obama deal. Klein went on to describe what
he noticed:

Jonathan Chait begins by quoting Upton
Sinclair’s famous line: “It is impossible to make a man understand something if
his livelihood depends on not understanding it.” Chait then wrote, “He
would come up with something – the cuts aren’t real, or the taxes are awful, or
they can’t trust Obama to carry them out, or something.”

Murphy’s initial view was that to unlock GOP votes for a
budget deal, Obama just needed to endorse chained CPI and more means-testing in
Medicare. Then it was pointed out that Obama has endorsed means-testing in
Medicare, so Murphy wondered why he didn’t endorse chained CPI as part of a
deal. Then it was pointed out that Obama did endorse chained CPI, at which
point Murphy called chained CPI “a gimmick,” and said Obama had to endorse
raising the Medicare age, drop his demands for more revenue as part of a deal
and earn back the GOP’s trust.

Recall what Chait said would happen.

A few tweets later, Murphy gave his bottom-line view,
which is that if Obama wants a deal, he needs to drop all of his demands and
just agree to what the GOP wants to do.

Technically, Obama did move first on spending. Over the
course of 2011, Obama signed into law a set of bills that cut about $1.8
trillion from discretionary spending, and that included no tax increases at
all. One of those bills, the Budget Control Act, also gave us the sequester, so
you could argue they included closer to $3 trillion in spending cuts
— all, again, without a single tax increase. It didn't seem to build much
trust. He’s also, in this deal, “moved first” on spending.

So far, the Republicans have not proposed any further tax
increases, but Obama has proposed quite a few spending cuts, including
means-testing in Medicare and chained-CPI.

So what’s left for Republicans?

That’s made it important for Republicans to prove that it’s
the president who is somehow holding up a deal. This had led to a lot of
Republicans fanning out to explain what the president should be offering if he
was serious about making a deal. Then, when it turns out that the president did
offer those items, there’s more furious hand-waving about how no, actually, this is
what the president needs to offer to make a deal. Then, when it turns out he’s
offered most of that, too, the hand-waving stops and the truth comes out:
Republicans won’t make a deal that includes further taxes, they just want to
get the White House to implement their agenda in return for nothing.

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One Man's Challenge to a Party Bent on Destruction

Politics: Just a guy tired of "compromising." Stop encouraging Republicans when it comes to their failed ideology.
I was once a liberal radio talk host. Played co-host to Vicki McKenna, a complete liar who can't can't stop filling the airwaves with mindless babble.
I'm someone who enjoys the the painful smiles of conservatives as they struggle to deny the avalanche of facts tumbling their way. They seem preoccupied with spelling and grammar.
Real Estate: I also hosted a real estate radio show.
Currently dabbling in part time work.